Tokyo Pop Lab is a multifunctional building that aims to combine the traditional oriental architecture with the contemporary Japanese culture. The project can be described as a civic pavilion, interrupted variously by hoisted volumes of discrete, localized activity. Below and in-between these floating volumes, urban life extends seamlessly into the building. Through an open, and carefully considered plan, the scheme establishes an urban, public forum for popular culture.

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PROJECT

…The project uniquely inverts the traditional model of a contained exhibition space by distributing media throughout the primary public space — the circulation surrounding the differentiated volumes. Within each of the distributed volumes, academic functions including classrooms and a lecture hall, are contained. Rather than assume a singular or limited expression, the proposal establishes a forum to exhibit, celebrate, discuss, and debate, the ebb and flow of popular culture in its various forms of expression through thoughtful programming of public space.

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VIEW

The building is a glass case in which the ground floor is completely permeable. A no plan platform that homes the caffè, part of the workshop and the free exhibition. On the southern part of the site a Japanese garden creates a green belt between the culural center and the closest building. The library and the IT suite are situated underground. They receive light from several patios gardens that create a visual connection with the other areas of the building. Suspend above ground, the classrooms and workshops are situated on the left volumes; the exhibition spaces and the auditorium are in the center and the offices and conference rooms are on the right side.

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↑. view of exhibition space

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↑. view of garden

WRAP IS…

The structural elements, such as the wooden columns, characterized the internal spaces suggesting the feature of Japanese traditional architecture, while the upper volumes are wrapped in a fabric that contains internal LED; a material that creates a neutral environments during the daytime but that could also been used as screen during the night. A way in orther to turn pop some traditional buildings’ elements.

Capanna Lepina is a proposal for a modern hut in order to allow the soft tourism in the Apennines valleys.
The shelter shape evokes the vernacular forms of the local mountain hut, combines through the use of sustainable materials, wich are recycled and recyclable.
The local chestnut wood is used for the balloon frame structure, wich is externally insulated with sheep’s wool panels. Cedar laths burned with technical Shou Sugi–Ban are used for the external skin.
Tanks to the corner window is possibile to maintain a physical and visual contact with the surrounding nature standing in the comfortable internal atmosphere.

We all come from earth, that is a relation and contact we should not neglect. The act of maintaining a relation with earth in the contemporary production of food is not necessarily a vision of an excessively nostalgic habitat: the ‘NYC Sky Condo’ in Manhattan can thus be a dialog between innovative techniques and tradition, and between human intellect and earth. What we propose is the composition of an architecture that integrates traditional agriculture and constructive techniques with innovative and efficient systems. The building will be responsive to both urban and environmental contexts and will integrate the spatial poetics of the dialog between nature and artifice already present in the High Line. Subsequently, the greatest challenge and objective of our proposal is the breaking of a variety of presupposed dichotomies: traditional and non-traditional agriculture, seasonal and non-seasonal production, terraced and vertical cultivations, speed and slowness, transparency and solidity, heaviness and lightness.

“The project of New Babylon only intends to give the minimum conditions for a behaviour that must remain as free as possible. Any restriction of the freedom of movement, any limitation with regard to the creation of mood and atmosphere, has to be avoided. Everything has to remain possible, all is to happen, the environment has to be created by the activity of life, and not inversely.”

Constant Nieuwenhuys, New Babylon

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Since 2008, the world has been going through a tough financial crisis, which has subsequently translated into a crisis of values.The competition departs from the socioeconomic context of southern Europe, more precisely from the delicate situation in Portugal. The country is rich in culture, architecture and history but the cuts policies have reduced the call to carry out public construction. It is even understood that despite unfavourable context, it has not been permitted to produce good architecture for the people, as the great school of Portuguese architects has always done.So, the idea is a unique piece of architecture, which is described as a large container of activities. Public investment is reduced to public equipment and the expense is optimized by hosting as many events and creating as many uses for the building as possible. It is a hall open to the citizens, activating the surrounding public space and articulating good architecture with limited resources.It’s a container that aims to react to the architect’s crisis, relating to the historical context of the place, the socioeconomic conditions and the moral sustainability of the proposal. It is an architecture of values that seeks its referents in history, in vernacular architecture and in the Portuguese masters.

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LOCATION

↑. urban position and definition of “open room” pavilion

PROJECT

The aim of the project is create a flexible space. The miradouro is a plate on which is placed a square building of 600 square meters consists of 24 movable walls of size 3mx3m. The walls can slide on rails placed on the ceiling and on the floor, creating a closed or open space or a series of rooms. The building is constitutional toy, it could be totaly opened or closed depending from people needs.

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↑. axonometric view . .

↑. view on miradouro plate and stair.

↑. inside view when pavilion is closed

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↑. different wall’s combinations: from close pavilion to completely open pavilion

Under the Market is a requalification and upgrade project of the Panjiayuan Market in Beijing. The original layout of the block creates a sealed off space to the city, our goal is to give back this space to the city connecting it to the surrounding urban tissue.

The project is not just a functional upgrade but it wants to return to the city a public space that becomes an important “void” in the dense Beijing. In fact, our main goal is to project something that is not just a building but a social space where tradition in trading antique goods can meet the contemporary society and its needs.

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PROJECT

A careful study of the needs and of the circulation defined the basic shape of our project: a longitudinal building works like a dividing wall between the pedestrian public space on the north side of the area and the vehicular path on the back of it, on the South side. In this way it’s solved what is the most important issue in circulation design: the separation of the pedestrian flow from the vehicular one. Rising the transverse wings it’s created a shelter suitable to welcome the flea market, preserving the identity and the social aspect of one of the most important event of the Panjiayuan Market and creating a continuous and extremely permeable public space that alternates gardens and squares.

market spaces and garden

This covered space is where the flea market takes place during the day but, when the market stops, people can enjoy that space as they like, for recreational activities and sports. A portico define the north borderline of our project and creates a double connections between the wings: a covered way on the ground floor from the metro station through the flee market’s areas and then to the market entrances; and a raised one that connects together all the market’s wings.From the inside, the market is composed by modular blocks 8x4m than can be merged in order to create bigger commercial surfaces to meet every target. These blocks, grouped, form a bigger unit that is repeated and mirrored all over the market building.Between a bigger unit and another there are distribution halls that horizontally and vertically connect all the different pathways. In these halls the stairs are the main element that fills, draws and defines the empty space.

market spaces

↑ . market concept

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↑ . market wing elevation: . perspective section . model scale 1.200

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↑ . market wing section: . perspective section . model scale 1.200

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garden

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multifunctional building

A multifunctional block with exhibition spaces, auction hall, hotel and offices defines a cozy courtyard wherein sculptures are exhibited. The transverse wing of the block are raised as well in order to create a continuity of the public space. The building layout is designed thinking about the relations that every function have with the others in order to provide fast and smart connections inside and outside the building.

Before to arrive to the architectonic propose, the project had been developed on a series of steps in order to find the potentials and problematic those bring to the final result. This process begin with a previous analysis of four aspects that has defined the approaches of a new interpretation of antique market in Beijing (circulation, people, density and typology). Afterwards, in collaboration with the Chinese students was determinate the first concept of Master Plan as primarily base to proceed the project at distance until the final presentation in Italy..

There is an interesting place in the Chaoyang District of Beijing. Here people who are interested in antiques, handicrafts, jade, paintings and old things know about it.

The market becomes the biggest and the most important antique one in Beijing and in all China, which covers an area of 48,500 sqm. The business here is so intense that the market seems like a sea of people and their voices can be heard from far away, especially during the weekends, when the market open at 4 o’clock in the morning. The early opening is a tradition for remember the mysterious “Ghost Market”. Some people think that it is not just a market, but also a museum. It is defined as a “collection market with the most comprehensive category nationwide” and “the biggest distributing center of arts and crafts in the country”.

In the 1995 the market moved to its present location and now it hosts over four thousand shops with nearly ten thousand of shop assistants coming from almost all the provinces of China or belonging to several minorities such as Miao, Mongolian and Korean.

The market is located near the 3th ring road, one of the seven ring that define Beijing circulation. His ring with subway (panjiayuan stop) allow a quick connection to the city center. Three different selling typologies characterize the market space: Uncovered open spaces, Covered opens spaces and Built spaces.

The goal of this work is analyze the spaces generated to the geologic process of honeycombs weathering. The result of geological processes is the generation of geometrical shapes. The search for new geometries starts from physical analysis of the process and then with the production of physical and digital models. The definition of new geometries is the foundation for study of many unexplored spatiality..

GEOLOGIC RESEARCH

Honeycomb weathering can be caused by a variety of factors, including wind erosion, exfoliation, frost shattering and salt weathering. In this case, the project is focused on salt weathering. This first involves salt water being applied to a porous rock typically by wind or crashing waves. The rock needs to be porous enough to allow salt water to enter through the rock minerals. Consequently, the rocks that are most often affected by honeycomb weathering include semi-arid granites, sandstone and limestone. The salt within the liquid begins to crystallize and, due to heat, the salt expands and exerts pressure on the confining rock to a point where rock is wedged out, resulting in rock depressions.

To mimic this process, first was applied acetone to foam. The acetone consumes the air within and between each foam ball, making it seem like the foam is being eaten up, resulting in interesting depressions. However, it was not helpful in our objective of finding architectural conditions in our project. Later was used foam glue, sand, rock and gravel. It was hoped the foam glue would generate interesting volumes. However, because of the rock, sand and gravel sticking to the foam glue, it did not produce any geometries that were similar to that of our geological observation; there were no depressions produced as a result of the sand, rock or gravel. Therefore was added ice to the mixture. This did produce depressions similar to honeycomb weathering, but there was not point in keeping the sand and rock with the mixture. Eventually, just was used foam glue and ice, resulting in qualities similar to honeycomb weathering.

In attempting to express structure and volume through computational medium, we began with code involving two agent groups interacting with one another: the “glue” agents and “ice” agents, represented as dots. The ice agents were given a barrier of a certain radius around themselves; the barrier forced the glue agent to not go through it, but around it, as if it were glue acting around real ice.

Before the code could be processed, the ice agent positions and sizes needed to be created. We created a system of smaller ice agents surrounding a line of larger ice agents grouped together. We wanted to show a series of volumes engulfed by a multitude of structural components. We then used color to emphasize the project’s volume. The voluminous and structural aspects can be identified by the blue volume and the white structural chaotic strands.

In our initial code iterations, the ice agents did not move. In order to further mimic our physical model, we created a code that allowed the ice agents to be attracted to each other depending on the distance one ice agent was from the other. In the end, as seen from the final project, multiple individual large volumes that were once all connected to each other now became grouped larger volumes.

Initially, the range we set established a cylinder shaped barrier for the glue to travel within. Later, we manipulated this range in order to create a larger base. We believed that creating a base would more structure to the project and would allow a more interesting connection between the project’s tower and ground. Through variation in ice agent position and size, the use of color, allowing the ice agents to move, and the change in range that limited how far the ice could travel, we created a system of interconnected elements that express structure and volume.

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↑ . digital model: plan sections sequence

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↑ . digital model: plan sections sequence

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SIMULATION EVOLUTION

Glue agents move continuously around the ice agents based on their sizes.

“ What makes animation so problematic for architects is that they have maintained an ethics of statics in their discipline. Because of its dedication to permanence, architecture is one of the last models of thought based on the inert. More then even to traditional role of providing shelter, architects are expected to provide culture with stasis. Architects are expected to provide culture with stasis.”

↑ . view under the new dome

IDEA

Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio in Rome. It is a small commemorative Martyrium built by Donato Bramante, according to the rules dictated by the classical tradition. The idea is think a new dome who questioning the Renaissance princes. The new dome don’t follow the traditional proportions but it’s linked to experimental geometries driving to natural process.

“Seeing Nervi place a skeleton of concrete in a structure is a magnificent lecture. Don’t ever put anything vulgar.Only Elegance! Doesn’t define as architect, but is better than most of us. “

Le Corbusier’s words, in my opinion, prove clearly the importance and the honor to having a masterpiece of architecture in Turin. Palazzo del Lavoro, designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, is a pavilion built for the celebrations of centenary of Italian Unification, in 1961. Now, Palazzo del Lavoro is considered as one of his best work, and it’s known in all the world. This pavillion was a symbol of increase for Italy and a icon for the city where was born Fiat, the most important italian factory, after second world war. In addition, it was the first opportunity to make great architecture and organise an innovative and technological site, in a period of strong development for the city. So, it was born as pride for the city of Turin, a symbol of Italian industrial miracle, and now it is marked by 55th years of abandonment and neglect.Two important events have occurred in Turin in last years: first, winter Olympics games in 2006, and than the celebrations of 150th years of Italian Unification. In no cases, it has found a solution for this architecture. Only a tricolor “packaging” hid the poor conditions of palace and increased the regret and a heated discussion. In fact, in these two occasions, the city preferred to organize the events in new containers (now not often used) rather than enhance what was already present, as Palazzo del Lavoro.

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PROJECT

“Going through Corso Unità d’Italy, you cross a page faded past of Turin, forgotten by the common memory. Although the complex of Italy ’61 had been a source of pride, not only in Turin, but for Italy itself. “

The reuse of the Palazzo del Lavoro is an opportunity to create a space for the community, but especially, for the preservation of a public good that must be protected.So, Palazzo del Lavoro has need a function, and a new organization of space. It’s necessary know the previous projects to don’t repeat the same mistakes. Therefore the new function should:
– be accurate in the size, so as don’t leave unused space and reduce energetic consumption
– Integrated in the life of the neighborhood, which until now, has been excluded from the building and its area of relevance
– Give visibility to the building and take advantage of the strategic position, that it occupies, as a southern gateway to the city.
The function must enhance the masterpiece of Nervi.
From these considerations why don’t turn it in a music house?

The modular solution comes from the knowledge of the structure and history of Palazzo del Lavoro. Nervi divided the building into 16 modules, called umbrellas, to reduce the time of construction of the pavilion. 47000 square meter were covered in 11 months, only. The music house using the modularity of the roof through the reflection on the ground of the 16 components. Sixteen volumes are defined under the base of the columns. In fact, the new function is placed in the basement. So it retains the idea of a green square blanket that integrates with the surrounding park.

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↑. concept: from cover plan of Palazzo del Lavoro, to definition of music house modules

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↑. concept: module composition

WHAT IS A MUSIC HOUSE?

Which are the spaces of music house?

The music house is the evolution of the concept of Concert Hall. In a concert hall you can attend events, in the manner and time defined by musical performance. It follows the changing needs of society, and it is based on openness to the community. New spaces are defined. They are intended to education (workshops, rehearsal rooms and recording) or leisure services (restaurants, cafes, spaces for reading and listening audiovisual, exhibition spaces). In addition they must be useful to the creation of opportunities to meet and socialize. So they are new places without sharp edges. They are autonomous systems with respect to a defined program of listening, but they are tied to changes in society.

Italy ’61 can become a vital link in the urban organization for its current location. It’s located near the major regional routes. It’s also the center of a densely populated district in transformation, since placed near Lingotto.Palazzo del Lavoro could be the place where the new identity of Turin can develop further and find its highest expression. It could be the “manifesto” of the city which trying to get over and forget the name of the city-factory.What space would be better than a box of 160 meters by 160, implemented as out of scale?A box characterized by unique architectural elements:. 16 umbrellas are 25 meters high and were made in eight days. isostatic floor was made with “ferrocemento”. windows and shading are an expression of great engineering

The environmental pollution remains a major source of health risk of the world and the end of oil reserves is closer. Hydropower, solar energy, biomass and geothermal energy are mainstream renewable technologies.Another efficient source could be wind power. It’s pollution-free and cost-competitive. With different intensity, the wind is present everywhere on the earth. So, why don’t use more wind power for produce clean energy? In Italy and in other European country, there is the conviction that turbines produce landscape and acoustic pollution and consume soil. For this reason, the use of the turbines is limited to areas far from the cities and tourist centers. The pictures under are a provocation to say: why the new wind turbines can’t become a new characterizing element of traditional landscape?

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IDEA

The goal of this idea is respond with an innovative solution, that uses wind flow to produce clean energy through a series of cables stretched in Grand Canyon. The idea uses a tensioned membrane that undergoes a flutter oscillation, whence is extracts wind energy. It is essentially an Aeolian harp except that it exploits the motion of the string produced by the aero-elastic flutter effect to move a magnet closer and farther from one or more coils and thus induce current in the wires.

The area hypothesized to insert the cables is the area with the average width of the lower canyon (600-800 m). Also here, Grand Canyon are present greater number of secondary canyons. So for what has been discussed above, within the canyon is always present air movements, that are caused either by the turbulence created by air currents opposite, or different temperature between the bottom, the walls and the rim of the canyon, or from the currents of the canyon side. The box containing the magnets and the coils for the production of energy are covered with Corten, so the color allows to hide the Grand Canyon rocks.

power generation

Today, the use of Winbelt as technology for the production of clean energy is limited to small dimensions.The Windcell, a 1 metre version that could be used to power meshed WiFi repeaters, charge cellphones, or run LED lights. It is hoped that a square metre panel at 6 m/s average windspeed can generate 10 Wh average.So, if with a structure of a meter can produce 10 w. How much energy could make with a structure of 400 m and the same air velocity?

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↑ . 1. view on gran canyon from secondary canyon

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RESEARCH wind condition in grand canyon

The most unique features of the Grand Canyon is the number and size of its vertical walls. Another important attribute of this environment is the number of side canyons with vertical and overhanging cliffs that can create wind patterns by either heating or cooling the air that flows through them thus causing updrafts. This air movement is called Canyon wind and it is a nocturnal down-canyon flow of air caused by the cooling of the canyon walls. However, to understand the wind behavior inside the Grand Canyon it is critical understand the relationship between the flow within the canyon, and the direction and speed of the synoptic winds above the canyon rim Also the static stability between the air in the canyon and the air just above, including the presence and strength of inversions or stable layers at below rim level. In Grand Canyon, principally are reveal two different flow structures:

– Reversed flow: flow in the canyon is opposite to the direction of the flow just above the rim. This flow occurs most often under north-westerly winds. – Coupled southwesterly flow: flow in the canyon is in the same direction as the flow above and very turbulent, generally occurring under southwesterly flow.

On the days with flow reversal in the canyon, the strongest in-canyon flow response was found for days with northwesterly flow and a strong inversion at the canyon rim. The aerosol backscatter profiles were well mixed within the canyon but poorly mixed across the rim because of the inversion. The gusty southwest flow days showed strong evidence of vertical mixing across the rim both in the momentum and in the aerosol backscatter profiles, as one would expect in turbulent flow. The days with light ambient flow showed poor vertical mixing even inside the canyon, where the jet of down-canyon flow in the bottom of the canyon at night was often either cleaner or dirtier than the air in the upper portions of the canyon.

↑ . example of usa wind condition

bibliography and sitography

– Wind-Flow Patterns in the Grand Canyon as Revealed by Doppler Lidar. Robert M.Banta,Lisa S.Darby,PirminKaufmann,David H.Levinson, and Cui-JuanZhu

Cusco is a 300,000 inhabitants Peruvian city. It extends for over 10 miles along a narrow valley formed by the Rio Huatanay. The city expands linearly to the east of its incaic historic center (World Heritage Site since 1983) without any planning tool that drove growth and densification. In about ten years the city’s population is expected to double within a space that is already saturated: because the valley is small and the airport is located in its midst (tourism is the only important local economy’s driving force, with two million tourists every year). A narrow valley, divided longitudinally into two by the runway, with no infrastructure to ensure efficient mobility, with a lack of services and meeting spaces, where each building is rapidly growing up to thirteen floors (this is the only limit that rules the process of densification). On these problems tried to investigate a specific hypothesis: the conversion in tramway of an old railway line that runs along the valley, could give rise to a sequence of small central places, as well as activate a system of linear, fast and efficient public transport.

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URBAN PROJECT

The transformation and upgrading of the railway line to a subway, begins from curiosity to discover culture, society and the Peruvian architecture.
Today the railway is a space very experienced by the community. In fact it is sometimes place of trade, or simply a dry path.
The goal of the project is to maintain and enhance the sociability of public spaces, offering easily accessible services that enable the cohesion of different types of users, from the citizen to the tourist, and that creates a space connection, a small and large scale, but without forget the criticality of a large South American city.
The urban shape was inspired to traditional Inca Kancha, a rectangular enclosure housing three or more rectangular buildings Placed symmetrically around a central courtyard.
Departing from the tradition of Kancha has generated a space apparently closed that creates relationships with the surroundings. The site is located between the river and the hill, and is divided by a slope of ten meters, on which were placed the densified new links between densificate city and the city of scattered houses on the hill. This very clear division was maintained allowing entry of the “green” along the escarpment to connect the two parks that develop alongside.
The urban form of the project is a single block engraved, cut and dug in order to generate different blocks of different heights and a central square for the Metro. Fragmentation correspond to a fragmentation of the functions of the buildings.
to housing.

An hotel, a medical clinic and offices are some of the features around the station. Traditionally, these functions should be located in very different fields, but here they find a way to communicate. First, they have direct access to the tram station. Also formally are connected by a walkway, but allows the distribution only within the hotel. So the space of entry can be read as the space of cohesion between different users. So the space of entry can be read as the space of cohesion between different users. Then appears satisfied the desire to create a social and spatial connection at small and large scale.

“A scene or view of roofs, especially when considered in terms of its aesthetic appeal”

Oxford dictionary

Raising a buildings is an efficient urban development strategy. Also it’s ground-zero consumption solutions. In the last years, the land use is alarmingly high. So, moderate overlappings of volumes and activity on existing buildings are responding to new expansions beyond the city or demolition and reconstruction of buildings. It is an operation that works punctually on the city, discretely but in the same time, decisively, in sensitive places to transformation.The raising is also technological innovation, with the search for new lightweight materials and adapted to overlay an existing structure.The main areas of intervention are currently:– Public buildings to revitalize, grafting new public or private activities and open spaces– Industrial buildings to be redeveloped by intervening on the cover and on the casing for new collective activities– Residential buildings to expand with particular attention to the requirements of eco-compatibility

VIA PLAVA

The project area consists of fifteen residential buildings located between Via Giovanni Roveda and via Plava and placed on six staggered rows. The area is peripheral, we are in exactly mirafiori south, last part of the city before the campaigns.The buildings were costriute in 1960 to accommodate workers at the headquarters of Fiat Mirafiori, on the north side of the site. Therefore, it is popular housing made of precast concrete modules.Through analysis of the site, it was found that the average age in this area is very high and that many apartments are now empty. The project, through the inclusion of a new type of population, under 30, tries to revitalize the area and forget the appellation of dormitory district, as is now considered and remembered by who live there. For this reason and for proximity to the school of design of Politecnico di Torino is thought to designing a student residence.

EXISTING

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PROJECT

The redevelopment of the buildings on Via Plava is an opportunity to experience the concept of overlapping, seen as extending upward.The idea of the village on the roof, consisting of a succession of regular modules with wooden structure, comes from the composition of the structure below and the selected function, the university residence. Three types of modules, tall less than two floors, are designed to be rooms, kitchens and multifunctional spaces, to 24 students. Two parallel axes defining the sequence of spaces between private and public. The sequence of the modules in the northwest, destined for more private spaces (rooms and services), is broken by glass stairwells. Instead, in the southeast, there are spaces for students’s common life: kitchens, entertainment venues and multifunctional rooms.The public spaces are divided, alternately, by open green space or space-glazed sealed, who have a double skin. If, in winter, the public spaces are like a bioclimatic greenhouse because of the large windows, in summer, they can be opened to allow greater airflow and environmental wellness.

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↑ . view from social spaces whit open shading closed and open

constructive technology detail in x-lam

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↑ . sections, plan and elevations detail of constructive system in x-lam of building elevation

During my internship at the firm Point. architects I got to work at the competition Rethink Hotels / Tablet Hotels by Jovoto.

The project focuses on the chance to give the city a new perspective on the river and its surroundings. The place is conceived for different kind of users, both tourists and citizens, giving them the chance to meet in an unusual place like a beach in Lower Manhattan. The hall is a very wide and long building that we placed centrally between the real “hotel structures” (i.e.rooms, services, act..) to connect the city (especially the high line terminus and the core of the Meatpacking District) and the riverside. Conceived to be the focus point of this architecture the hall can be passed through by several kind of users: fast NY citizens (bikers, skaters, runners, etc) by the upper route. Tourists, families and relaxing NY people by the hall itself where you can find a cafe. Tourists accommodated in the hotel by the hall where the reception and services are placed. Moreover the structure gives the chance to use the place in several ways: to relax, to read a book, to have a coffee, to sunbathe, to take a room, to run, to play bowls outside, even during winter days with the exception of the salt sea swimming pool.

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LOCATION

The location choose is in Meatpacking District, in the waterfront, between the river and the High Line park, in south of 23rd street. Precisely, where it is the end of the high line, and where the last year has been built the new Whitney Museum of American Art by Renzo Piano. The Meatpacking district is a growing up district. In fact here art, architecture, fashion, design and restaurant have as keywords: experiment and research. Also the meatpacking district is a not so high area in downtown. So what place is best for a social hotel?

In Europe the practices of use urban spaces are marked by heavy commuter movements and tend to re-articulate themselves at two scales. The first is defined by a wide range of work and leisure practices. These movements are favored by the presence of large infrastructure networks that allows, within a space of an hour and a half, to live in and use places that are hundreds of kilometers far apart. At the same time are emerging questions related to a new dimension of inhabiting that involves the spaces immediately outside the house where people starts to export living practices of domestic nature. This second scale of use of space, for which new expectations are emerging about the possibilities of their use and performance, correspond to the a demand for a new “right to proximity” intended as a demand for urban space comfort, not for the research of communitarian relations (Sieverts, 2007).So, it’s launched a reflection on the meaning and on innovative forms of urban spaces design within the dimension of inhabiting the proximity because this is one of the most relevant issues for the project of the “city after the crisis’ (Bourdin, 2010). The question to answer is: what are the characters and forms of use of open spaces, more generally, of urban spaces, in the contemporary city? How to respond to the new questions that are starting to emerge for them?

URBAN PROJECT

Among the projects of urban transformation of Turin there is the sale of Porta Nuova railway station and the consequent transformation of railway between the central train station, and Lingotto station.There are many solutions. In this case it is thought about transformation of railway in an urban park residential and equipped.It’s residential because in the park are provided a set of modular residences to accommodate about 2,000 students. The residential materials are prefabricated containers of which are investigated logical mounting, arrangement to the ground and innovative shapes for spaces of proximity.It’s equipped because there are community facilities such as a sports center and systems of open spaces served with café and design objects.The park linearity is delineated by hills and depressions that draw the paths and it is interrupted by flowering or wooded bands culminating in areas equipped for children.Compositionally the park resembles a muscle made of fibers and nuclei. In fact, in the park, hills, depressions and flat spaces that define the paths, remember the muscle fibers, while the plates, on which are placed 16 circular residential conglomerates, are identified with the nuclei.

The Pro-rom project is a workshop of some weeks that investigated and reflected on self-construction techniques, typical of developing countries, through the production of panels to be used outside of a container.At the end of the work we produced self-construction manuals of the different tested techniques: Torchis walls, thatched walls, mud-brick walls, bamboo structures and hydroponic greenhouse.

HYDROPONIC GREENHOUSE

The hydroponic greenhouse is an environment created for the cultivation of flowers and plants, as a traditional greenhouse. But the cultivation happens in the absence of earth, replaced by an inert substrate, for example pozzolan, expanded clay, perlite, vermiculite, coir, rockwool, and zeolite. The absence of earth implies the lack of traditional nutrients. So the plant is irrigated with a nutrient solution composed of water and mineral components for nutrition.

The soilless cultivation has advantages in environmental conditions where the substrate can not grow the culture in an optimal way, such as rock or sandy soils. Another advantage is the reduced use of water to obtain the same result. Compared to the crop in the soil is used only 10% of the water. So this system is particularly useful in situations where environmental scarcity of water makes it difficult or even impossible to growing vegetables.Also the use of fertilizers is targeted as there are dispersions in the soil. The use of herbicides is absent, and the use of pesticides is reduced.In the end the hydroponic greenhouse is an excellent solution to satisfy the demand of healthy products and 0 km.The materials of the structure and seat were recycled materials to 90%, while for the plant components are used materials purchased or donated.

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PROJECT AND REALIZATION

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The components of the greenhouse made during the workshop are three:– 1. pallets, which are placed seedlings of salad and strawberries– 2. sitting, to relax and to pick fruit– 3. pallet, for the support of the photovoltaic panel

A green farm to educate children and to relive a small mountain hamlet, as the ancient village of Novalesa. A country, a township at the altitude of 800 m in Val di Susa, which as others mountain towns in the Alps, looking to reinvent themselves to survive, creating opportunities for tourism and funding an innovative architecture that breaks with the construction practices common last fifty years , and instead recovery aspects of traditional build. The project looks to the future the village starting from what already exists, with a timely operation of regeneration and reuse of three buildings partially abandoned.The intended use of the buildings are retained for two of the three buildings. The building on the north-west is redeveloped to accommodate existing residential function, the same happens to stable on the north side, which maintains the structure and the traditional lose roof. Different operation on the building instead similar to an L. In this case, there isn’t the recovery of existing but is realized a new building, with x-lam innovative technique, on the footprint of the existing to accommodate the teaching rooms. Remains the same width of the sleeve and the pitched roof, which is reinterpreted with a different slope of the pitches.

The building sector is responsible for almost 40% of the total final energy consumption on a world level. This consumption, either in the form of heat (using primarily oil) or electricity, besides being a significant economic burden due to the high cost of energy, results in large scale atmospheric pollution, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) which is responsible for increasing greenhouse effect.The reduction of energy consumption in buildings can be achieved by simple methods and techniques, using a appropriate building design (bioclimatic architecture) and energy efficient systems and technologies, such as passive solar systems, supported by active systems, all based on the specific climatic conditions of the project site

CONCEPT

The study of the climatic conditions: the shadows and the incidence of the wind, is the tool used for the selection of passive and active technologies applied, and their correct positioning and sizing.For the building envelope has used a recycled material: pallet, namely EUR EPAL 800x1200mm. The pallet is sustainable both economically and ecologically. In the project the pallets held together by strips, are arranged one against the other, so as to create an empty space. This is completely filled with insulating wood fiber. Obviously the pallets do not have any structural function. The structure is in solid wood pillars and beams, and is braced by the accommodation of concrete stairs (see construction details). Moreover the pallets are used in the facade (mainly east and west), as sunscreens. In this way, justifies their vertical position.Other passive technologies used in the project, in addition to the building envelope and sunscreens, are: solar greenhouse, thermal mass, wall and roof, green.To ensure optimal efficiency of the building they are paired with active technologies: solar thermal, photovoltaic panels, underfloor heating, phyto-deputation system of black and gray water, and rain water recycling.All active and passive technologies have been adequate for the needs of the building according to the characteristics of the project and site. So this building can not be placed in a position other than the design.

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PROJECT

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south solar greenhouse

The solar greenhouse, located on the south side of the building, uses passive technologies such as thermal mass and ative as beadwall.To accumulate thermal energy (heat) were used two types of materials: stone and water coolers. The first were included in the ceiling of the ground floor and the first floor, covered by a slab of precast concrete, which allows air to circulate through the ventilation plugs inserted to the floor and the top and bottom of collonne ventilation. The latter are bottles of dark plastic, so that it can capture the solar radiation in a better way, and filled with distilled water, to avoid the deterioration of the liquid.The beadwall is a sophisticated active technology to isolate the greenhouse at night, without having to have problems of size and weight in front due to the used blinds and shutters. Consists in the use of a cavity between two layers of glass (preferably shatterproof glass 6mm), to fill during the night of thousands of polystyrene balls. A powerful electric motor, which can be used as a vacuum or as a blower. At night, when there is need of isolation, the engine blows the polystyrene balls in the gap, until this is full. In the morning, the motor runs in reverse, thus restoring the polystyrene balls inside the tank.

The wall and the green roof using a modular system: a standardized element of 60x40x6 cm, recycled polypropylene UV-resistant, weatherproof and can support high static and dynamic loads. The weight of the panel turfed in conditions of full humidity is about 10 kg.The panels are attached to vertical and horizontal profiles, aluminum self-supporting, and anchored to the building structure through aluminum brackets.The ventilation of the walls is ensured, for stack effect, by an adequate gap between the wall and the green wall coating for the improvement of bioclimatic conditions of the building. At the sides of the green wall are positioned tanks for collecting rainwater, formed by three superposed tanks, connected to each other with sequential filling. The water level is controlled by a float that blocks the entry of it into the tank already full to allow the filling of the next sequence. In case of heavy rainfall, the system, through a tube of “overflow” drain the water in an underground tank. These tanks are covered by a network of stainless aluminum, on which are grown vines and evergreen.The collected water is used for irrigation of the wall and the green roof (which are connected between them), through a system of drip irrigation that allows a homogeneous distribution of the water. The heart of the system is an electronic controller that regulates the frequency and amount of water intake predetermined.

The project site is in a flat area near Caselle, Turin.The building is free of obstructions on two of the four sides, north and west. While, to the south and east are located multi-family housing, not exceeding three floors above ground.The reduced height of the surrounding buildings do not create periods of shadow in summer days (June 21). But in the winter period (December 21), the shadows cast by the surrounding buildings are projected on the site: the effect occurs only in the early hours of the day but on a large enough area.If shadows refer to a single day, the use of paper of the sun, allows to determine, given knowledge of the position of the sun for any time of day and day of the year, the period of shadow, therefore define with exactly the hours and days on which the building is located under the shadow of what surrounds it.In the months of October, February, November, December and January, the building is in the shade until 11:00, while in summer it is subject to radiation more constant throughout the day.

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WIND ANALYSIS

The relative depth of the area of calm of the buildings on a wind flow is useful for the following objectives:– To evaluate the barrier effect of the buildings, compared to cold winds winter, in relation to the need to reduce heat loss through the shell;– Maximize the potential of natural ventilation, as compared to the prevailing direction annual;– Maximizing the potential of passive cooling ventilativo, compared to the prevailing direction summer;The analysis of the prevailing winds in this area, from the north-west and north-east, and the relative depth of the zone of calm showed that the building is not affected by the depth of the wake of calm of the other buildings.So, when the wind blows from the north-west and north-east, areas of calm around our building are defined only by the same building.

Barriera Milano is a popular neighborhood (in north of Turin), born towards the end of the nineteenth century with the construction of the firsts residential hub. The district takes in the 60s the value of industrial hub, contrasted to “Mirafiori” hub, but in the following decades there was a socio-cultural estrangement that led to degradation the area.Barriare Milano is where the river Stura separates the city from his first belt, and where via Botticelli is an imaginary and symbolic boundary between the city and the rest of the territory. It is currently one of the hubs of development and change in place in the city.In this area are beginning small and large operations for its revaluation: from urban gardens, to the future terminal of metro line 2, which will link quickly the district of Barriera Milano, with the center of the city.These conditions are ideal for an exercise in architecture that must also assess the topography of the site.

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PROJECT

The differences of ground level present concur in the definition of two strips built, separated by a driveway, and cut perpendicularly by pedestrian access to the park. These strips built correspond to a one level with low density buildings (north), and another with a high-density buildings (south), whose ground floor is taken up by the local service sector. The image is two clasped hands: a big hand that starts from the city, and opens onto the park, and a second layer that comes from park to the city. The fingers correspond to the axis pedestrian, linking the park to the city.In an attempt to make Via Botticelli front more permeable to citizen, it is emptied. The sleeves perpendicular to the park, remain connected from the second floor above ground, through a walkway designed to communal areas.One of the strengths of the area is represented by panoramic views (Superga hill and along Stura River). So the floors become of “telescopes”, whose ends are rotated and stained glass windows, to free these stunning views.The urban villas (buildings low density in the lower level) are placed at the sides in front of telescopes, as the ideal continuation of the first building, and follow the same philosophy of the buildings to high density, with regard to the definition of their shape, with the addition of the retreat of the ground floor on the side of the park to form a covered porch.

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façade details

The vertical sunscreens run across the surface of the building, excluding the ground floor, fully glazed. So they is movable, where the windows are open, thanks to a system of guides hidden in the floors. So the building never has a constant shape. The facades may have openings when, when you want to permeate more light inside the apartments, or be continuous, when sunscreens are closed.
The materials used are concrete for telescopes and string courses and the wood for the sunscreens. These materials were chosen to characterize the building but did not look away from the rest of the environment.

Villa nm, surrounded by nature, in Upstate New York, is an example of modern living, designed to be in relationship with the environment by responding to the needs of the anonymous owners. Designed by UNStudio betwee